New York is an island prison where criminals run free and are cut off from civilisation. Air Force One however is flying overhead when the pilot loses control, and the President is lost in Manhatten while he is carrying the launch codes for the U.S.A's missile defense system.The goverment has no choice but to send in Snake Plissken: A former Green Berret on his way to serve a life sentence in jail, to rescue the president

In the scene where the helicopters come in and they retrieve the President's briefcase containing a message, one of the people in the chopper points down and says "People down in the park. Can you see them?" That guy is the film's director, John Carpenter.